All of us have stories but too many people reach the end of life without ever getting to share theirs. Children and grandchildren may think they know their elders, having heard the old stories repeated multiple times but they've only scratched the surface and need to ask better questions.

Many people have no one to hand stories down to. As peers die there are fewer people with shared memories. Without the retelling, memories fade.

Any long lived life is filled with many story-worthy experiences, some of them life changing but all of them end up being the building blocks of one particular life. The elder himself may not think his stories remarkable enough to retell, may not know how to tell them in an interesting way. An author has the ability to wheedle out details and craft them into a story you feel present in.

In the telling, so much gets sorted through, memories uncovered, events seen more clearly, issues resolved, old perspectives might be reconsidered through the lens of time. It's invaluable for the teller but also for the listener. Imagine all the stories in a person's life ... not just a 'once-upon-a-time' fairy tale or a bit of nostalgia for the good ol' days ... but the bits of wisdom gleaned, lessons learned within each particular life ... the mapping out of one persons journey, the choices made that created ripples of consequences, that affected future choices; ripples that affected not only his life but the lives of those he touched even briefly. They say when an old person dies, a library is lost. It's wonderful when something gets saved.

Ripples Through Time turned out to be a series of short stories connected by a conversation between Calvin and an old family friend. They were primarily about family members and their recollections of certain important events in their lives. Most of the stories were good enough on their own but it would've had more impact to the book as a whole if they'd all contained a strong common thread connecting them to Calvin or a particular theme. The characters were there in all, but it lacked focus, as if the stories had been written separately and later combined to create a book.

I would've enjoyed this book more if it had been edited properly. A reader shouldn't be distracted from the story by errors or discrepancies ... things that might have been caught by someone other than the reader. A good editor should weed out unnecessary sentences, point out when the author has gone off on unrelated tangents, note where important information was missing and then ask for clarification. The point of all that is to keep the reader engaged.

I received this as an e-book from LibraryThing's Member Giveaway program. The title and premise of the book intrigued me. The author has some skill but in this case I think the help of an editor would've made this book considerably better." ( )